Pork Loin Tarragon

This Pork Loin Tarragon starts with a bone in pork loin roast, cooked on the stove-top with a wine, mustard and tarragon gravy.

If you are a fan of my Pork Loin with Wine and Herb Gravy, I know you will love this one as well. It’s similar, but different :) The main difference is the use of tarragon and mustard in the wine gravy, which is a treat if you are a tarragon lover, like me!

Also different with this one is that it starts with a bone-in, centre-cut pork loin roast. I find these roasts on sale often and can never resist popping one in the freezer. It’s not always easy to find nice ways to cook them up though, which is why I love this recipe.

Even though this one starts with a bone-in roast, I will often remove the meat from the bone and thinly slice it, as I’ve done here. Alternately though, as this is a bone-in roast, you can cut it into wide “chops” from your roast and serve drizzled with the delicious gravy. This method of cooking the pork ensures a lovely, tender piece of pork whichever way your decide to serve it.

Cook’s Notes for Pork Loin Tarragon

Use a nice, dry white wine here. Any wine you would enjoy drinking will work nicely here.

Likewise, if your pan is free of liquid when the roast is cooked and you have removed it to rest, add a splash of wine to the pan to deglaze, before adding the stock/cream etc.

Be sure to test the sauce and season with salt and freshly ground pepper, as needed. You can also add a bit more mustard/tarragon to the sauce if you feel it needs it.

Be sure to check the pan while it is cooking to make sure there is still wine in it. You don’t want the pan to go dry! I will often need to add a splash of extra wine for the last 10 minutes of cooking.

I tested my roast for internal temperature when I checked it every 20 minutes and found the following: at 20 minutes it was 56F (roast was still cool from the fridge), at 40 minutes it was 70F, at 1 hour it was 102F, at 80 minutes it was 129F. I cooked a further 5 minutes (so 1 hour, 25 minutes total) and the temperature was 135F when I removed it from the pan. This makes for a wonderfully moist, but ever so slightly pink pork. You may wish to cook to 140F if you prefer no pink, but still lovely and tender. Roast will rise a further 5F as it rests.

Pork Loin Tarragon

Bone-in, centre-cut pork loin roast, cooked on the stove-top with wine and finished with a mustard and tarragon gravy.

Prep Time 10minutes

Cook Time 1hour40minutes

Total Time 1hour50minutes

Servings: 6servings

Ingredients

1/4cupolive oil

3clovesgarlicpeeled and whole

3mediumshallotspeeled and quartered

3lb.bone-in, centre-cut pork loin roast

3inchlength fresh tarragon

1 1/2cupsdry white wineany kind you enjoy drinking

To finish:

1cupchicken broth

3/4cupheavy cream

3TbspDijon mustard

3Tbspfresh tarragon leavesroughly chopped

Salt and freshly ground pepper

To thicken, if necessary:

1Tbspwater

1Tbspcornstarch

Instructions

Heat oil over medium-high in a large, heavy-bottomed pot with a lid, such as a Dutch oven, big enough to hold your roast. Add garlic cloves and shallots to the pan. Season roast with salt and pepper. Place top/fat-side down into the pan and allow to cook until golden. Flip over roast and allow to cook another few minutes, stirring the garlic/shallots a bit.

Add wine to pan and allow to boil for a minutes, then reduce heat to medium-low, placing the lid over-top slightly ajar, so that pot is not completely covered. Cook for 20 minutes, flip roast and stirring, making sure there is liquid in the pan that is at a gentle simmer. Continue cooking, flipping and checking every 20 minutes, for a total of about 1 1/2 hours, adding more wine if necessary if pan gets dry, or until the roast internal temperature reaches 135-140 degrees when tested with a thermometer. Remove roast to a cutting board and tend loosely with foil.

To the pan, add chicken broth, heavy cream, Dijon and tarragon. Bring to a simmer, stirring pan to loosen any brown bits on the bottom of the pan. Season with salt and pepper. If necessary, thicken sauce by stirring together water and cornstarch and adding a bit at a time to the gravy until sauce thickens as much as you'd like.

Keep sauce warm. Cut pork away from bone in one large piece and thinly slice to serve with gravy or alternately, cut down through the roast and bone into thicker chops and serve drizzled with sauce.

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Meet the Author: Hi! I'm Jennifer, a home-cook of some 30-plus years. I've learned a lot from getting dinner on the table all these years! I hope to share a bit of what I've learned, as well as my favourite recipes. Most importantly though, I love sharing the joy of cooking at home, with simple, delicious and seasonally-inspired recipes. More about me here ...

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I LOVE tarragon and I don’t use it nearly enough. We grow a lot of it during the summer and I should be using more. Delicious pairing with pork and that creamy sauce. Bet it’s lovely with a glass of white wine!

Love the white wine and tarragon flavors – this is a pork dish I’d be happy to savor…I guess I better roll up my sleeves, lol. PS. Last night had to use up a bunch of asparagus and make a quick dinner. Decided on a quiche, but didn’t have crust. Then came across your hash brown crust asparagus quiche recipe – yum! It was great with mozzarella and grated Parmesan.

I love pork, but for some reason I don’t eat it often enough. This pork loin is making me want to change that immediately! That tangy tarragon gravy looks to die for delicious!! I bet this tastes even better than it looks! Can’t wait to give it a try!